Meelis Friedenthal presents a working paper on 'Political, philosophical and theological background(of the Swedish Universities)'

The general aim of the project is to give an overview of the intellectual tradition of the universities of Uppsala, Tartu, Turku, Greifswald and Lund that all fell into the boundaries of the Swedish Empire (1611-1721). The main sources for the study are the disputations that were presented both for examination and for obtaining an academic degree in the universities and the sources that were cited in these disputations. Taking the ideas about soul and immaterial substances as a starting point the project is going explore the intellectual developments in the Swedish universities of the 17th century and compare these to the developments in the German cultural space, mainly looking at a) the reception of new philosophical ideas; b) connection between pneumatology and discussion about witchcraft and magic; c) attitudes towards Pietism.

Qian Zhao is going to present a working paper on 'Empirical Research of Moral Background in China’s Business Ethics Education'

There are two levels of business ethical research. One is the behavioral level, about moral and immoral behavior/practices. The other one is the normative level. According to Abend(2014), there should be a third level, the moral background study. The moral background supports, facilitates, and enables behavioral and normative levels of morality. 

In this chapter, I would like use moral background theory as an empirical tool to examine business ethicists’ work in top Chinese business schools and try to reveal their different types of moral background. It can reveal the different path of the comprehensive evolution of business ethics education in China since 2000 as well as how moral background changes along with socioeconomic transition.

Juhi Tyagi gives a working paper on 'Radical politics: Organizational Structures and Networks of the Poor'

This paper focuses on radical organising by the poor. Unlike workers in mass production, who by their location in the economic system, possess leverage, how can the poor make demands of institutions over which they possess no structural power? Using the case of the armed insurgency in India, I find that areas of sustained radical networks of the poor emerged from specific organisational formations on the ground. I elaborate each of these organisational structures that emerge, tying them to the crucial aspect of relatively autonomy in the functioning of peasant groups of poor in the village.

Save the Date "Meister-Eckhart-Tage Erfurt" next June

In June 2019 the "Meister-Eckhart-Tage" will take place in Erfurt.   

Highlights are a workshop on "Stories and legends about Meister Eckhart", conducted by Prof. Dietmar Mieth, a dance theater in the Barfüßerruine, a bike ride on the Meister-Eckhart-Radpilgerweg and a musical reading with Martina Gedeck and Unio Mystica. 

  

 More information about the program will be published:  https://www.meister-eckhart-erfurt.de/

Arthur Bueno is going to present a working paper on 'Capital, Desire, and Neurasthenia'

This paper reflects on the affective implications of capitalist forms of life by exploring the affinities between Karl Marx’s Capital and Georg Simmel’s writings on money and modern culture. Such an endeavor rests on the assumption that, as stated by a contemporary reviewer of The Philosophy of Money, many of Simmel’s arguments “read like a translation of Marx’s economic discussions into the language of psychology.” In line with this, I suggest that Simmel’s phenomenologically precise description of modern forms of life can be interpreted as a consistent analysis of the affective implications of commodity fetishism. More precisely, this paper develops the idea that money – in particular when it attains the form of capital – is an embodiment of pure, self-referential desire. Contrary to what is often stated regarding the first chapters of The Philosophy of Money, this does not mean that Simmel’s account relies on a merely subjective theory of value, as in orthodox economics. Rather, such a conception of money and capital as pure desire can only be based on a value theory that is at once pre-subjective, subjective, intersubjective and objective. In the context of this systematic reconstruction, some of the most defining features of affective experience in modernity come to appear as expressions of what Simmel, following the psychology of his time, called neurasthenia, i.e. a continuous oscillation between feelings of hyperesthesia and anesthesia.

Enno Friedrich presents a working paper on 'Ven. Fort. carm. 9, 6-7 – an interpretative commentary'

The paper consists of an interpretative commentary of two poems (which are possibly in fact one ‚unit‘). In these poems the self-styling of the poet plays a major role. I am trying to show that the poet is styling his poetic I as a ‚bad‘ or irreverent poet to a certain extent, while showing off his poetic skills at the same time. He makes his poem lightly puzzling for the recipient and thus more interesting.

Sanam Roohi gives a working paper on 'Multi-scalar approach to transnational political activism: Bring Babu Back Campaign and the 2014 Election in Andhra'

After a prolonged political impasse following the death of its chief minister within months of being elected in 2009, the state of Andhra Pradesh had plunged into deep political uncertainties. Multiple changes in the leadership, the breaking up of the ruling party, the ultimate bifurcation of the state after a protracted agitation and the imminent loss of the capital city to the newly carved state of Telangana exacerbated these uncertainties in the state. Simmering caste and regional contestations came out to the fore reverberating amongst the stratified Telugu diaspora in the US as well. Therefore, 2014 was a crucial election year for the state, as it held the promise of bringing some stability. The ‘Bring Babu Back’ campaign–a political campaign to lead the Telugu Desam party and its leader Chandra Babu Naidu to victory – emerged within this backdrop. Narrativized through the language of ‘need for change’, ‘risk’ of ‘irreversible loss’ and a call to act with ‘urgency’ brought hundreds of engineers from Andhra and the USA together to fight for ‘stability’ and ‘development’ of the truncated state. Joining causes with the national election that year that used similar rhetoric, the campaign converged and diverged in different ways. Using multi-scalar approach as a methodological and empirical tool, the paper analyses how the regional, national and transnational intersected in creating a political discourse that culminated in a successful transnational political mobilization. Moreover, it allows us to grasp how the campaign was refashioned and articulated to suit itself to a caste inflected and globally connected Andhra, while strategically aligning itself to national political discourse.

Dietamr Mieth presents a working paper on 'The "heart" as a metaphorical-real speech within Meister Eckharts work'

Meister Eckhart is known as an author who enriches mysticism but is at the same time very intellectual/rational. Philosophers seem to present another Eckhart than those who read him spiritually.  The connection between both approaches is given by Eckhart himself: the “heart” is the real embodiment of rational thinking and it is the center of his metaphorical language concerning the presence of God in the soul. Eckhart’s preaching in High-Middle German integrates real and metaporical  considerations, but for him the metaphors represent the reality insofar as God’s reality is the true agent. In the colloquium the rich and different aspects of Eckhart’s preaching from ‘heart to heart’ will be investigated

Jörg Rüpke is going to present a working paper on 'Beyond Urban religion'

If ‘urban religion’ can serve as a lens onto the historical entanglement of cities or even more loosely ‘urban settlements’, it is the spatial character of religion that needs to be understood and theoretically modelled. In the history of research, ‘sacred places’ have played a prominent role as loci of epiphanic character, above all in phenomenological approaches to religion, but also in studies of roles of sacred centres or pilgrimage. In many other perspectives, the temporal aspects of religion (routine, crisis rituals and rites de passage, conversion, calendar) have been foregrounded, place has been reduced to a mere setting. This paper attempts at reconstructing religious action as a spatial practice that is sensitive to and creative of the character of settlements. On that basis it tries to develop a grid of analytical perspectives for the interaction with urban space.

A workshop takes place at the Max Weber Kolleg on 'Sounds of Protest and Resonance'

Workshop: Sounds of Protest and Resonance
November 13, 2018, Max-Weber-Kolleg, Erfurt

 Next, Tuesday, November 13, a workshop takes place at the Max-Weber-Kolleg in the framework of the International Graduate School on "Sounds of Protest and Resonance". Fouad G. Marei and Stefan Donath present their ongoing research on rituals and the emotive effect of sounds in protest and conflict contexts in two guest lectures. Participants are welcome.

 
Workshop: Sounds of Protest and Resonance
November 13, 2018, Max-Weber-Kolleg, Erfurt

 PROGRAMME
14.15–14.30 | Andreas Pettenkofer (Max-Weber-Kolleg)
Introduction
14.30–15.15 | Stefan Donath (Freie Universität Berlin,
Research Centre “Interweaving Performance Cultures”)
Choruses of Protest: Towards a New Aesthetics of Resistance
15.15–15.25 | Marcus Döller (Max-Weber-Kolleg)
Comment to the paper
15.25–16.00 | Chair: Juhi Tyagi (Max-Weber-Kolleg)
Discussion
16.30–17.15 | Fouad Marei (Max-Weber-Kolleg)
Feeling Sectarian? Shi’i Ritual Practice, Affective Relations,
and Holy War in the Middle East
17.15–17.25 | Anita Neudorfer (Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz)
Comment to the paper
17.25–18.00 | Chair: Andreas Pettenkofer
Discussion

 For more infomation:

https://www.uni-erfurt.de/fileadmin/public-docs/Max-Weber-Kolleg/6_PDFs/Tagungen/2018/Aushang_Workshop_Sounds_of_Protest_and_Resonance_2018.pdf